Papers by Dr Khaled Layali
مجلة کلية التربية فى العلوم التربوية
The researchers investigated the advantages and disadvantages of the sudden shift to e-learning f... more The researchers investigated the advantages and disadvantages of the sudden shift to e-learning from the perspectives of Saudi EFL students during COVID-19. That shift was the only learning option for a long time to come after the existence of new variants of the virus. Studying students' perspectives during the pandemic was important to display how they took responsibility for their learning, interact with the teachers, and collaborate. The researchers performed this study to describe: (a) EFL students' perspectives on e-learning, (b) advantages of e-learning for EFL, and (c) disadvantages of e-learning for EFL in Saudi Arabia during Coronavirus variants. A self-devised questionnaire and individual interviews were administered virtually during COVID-19 with male EFL students while they were studying an integrated-skills English course as an intermediate-level course in the PYP of a Saudi university. Using the Constant Comparative Method to analyze the qualitative data resulted in eight benefits and four drawbacks of e-learning for the Saudi EFL context. Most students viewed that e-learning and Social Media as supporting platforms of their learning while a few of them did not think favorably of e-learning. Recommendations were offered to enhance the benefits and decrease the drawbacks.
Saudi Students' Perspectives of Blogs in ESL Writing
International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies, 2020
The researchers used an intact class of convenience at the English Language Institute (ELI) in Ju... more The researchers used an intact class of convenience at the English Language Institute (ELI) in Jubail, Saudi Arabia to conduct their study to find out about the students' perspectives about the use of blogs as an additional out-of-class ESL writing activity. These perspectives were important as mixed results about benefits and limitations of the use of blogs in ESL writing were reported in the literature. Twenty Saudi male students participated in the questionnaire and interview. The researchers aimed to gain in-depth information from the participants to try to answer the research question (i.e., what are the ELI Saudi students' perceptions of the use of blogs in ESL writing?). As such, these twenty students who agreed to participate in the study were enough since the aim was to gain rich information to answer the research question not to generalize the findings to any intended larger population. The study found advantages for using blogs in ESL writing. These were: (1) moti...
Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition
Discovering the new variants of coronavirus by the end of 2020 pushed many countries to continue ... more Discovering the new variants of coronavirus by the end of 2020 pushed many countries to continue suspending universities and schools. A complete change to online learning seemed the only available option to continue education given the detection of new coronavirus variants. Such a long time of using online learning can display how teachers experience this hard time of the pandemic. The researchers performed this study to explore EFL teachers’ perceptions of online learning in a Saudi university during this period. They aimed to have a closer look at EFL teachers’ perceptions of the sudden shift into online learning. They focused on the teachers’ benefits, drawbacks, and suggestions. They used a questionnaire and interviews to collect qualitative data to answer research questions. Results showed five benefits and two drawbacks of using online learning to teach English in that Saudi university. The benefits are being a good and useful option for teaching during the coronavirus pandemi...
Discovering the new variants of Coronavirus by the end of 2020 pushed many countries to continue ... more Discovering the new variants of Coronavirus by the end of 2020 pushed many countries to continue suspending universities and schools. A complete change to online learning seemed the only available option to continue education given the detection of new Coronavirus variants. Such a long time of using online learning can display how teachers experience this hard time of the pandemic. The researchers performed this study to explore EFL teachers’ perceptions of online learning in a Saudi university during this period. They aimed to have a closer look at EFL teachers’ perceptions of the sudden shift into online learning. They focused on the teachers’ benefits, drawbacks, and suggestions. They used a questionnaire and interviews to collect qualitative data to answer research questions. Results showed five benefits and two drawbacks of using online learning to teach English in that Saudi university. The benefits are being a good and useful option of teaching during Coronavirus, motivation of teachers, ease of access and use, interacting between teachers and students, and being less teacher-centered. The drawbacks are disruption by poor Internet and technical issues and cheating by students on assessments. The participants provided some suggestions to improve the benefits and overcome the drawbacks.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) was declared a world pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Ja... more Coronavirus (COVID-19) was declared a world pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on January 30, 2020. As a safety measure to protect people, most governments in the world, including Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, decided to close universities and workplaces. Prompted by this shut down, the researchers aimed to review the students’ perceptions of e-learning for ESL/EFL in Saudi universities during Coronavirus time. The study aimed to report: 1) students’ perceptions of elearning for ESL/EFL, 2) benefits of e-learning for ESL/EFL, and 3) drawbacks of e-learning for ESL/EFL in Saudi universities. To this end, eight studies were found on Google Scholar and ERIC. These studies had used questionnaires and interviews to explore students' views of e-learning tools such as Google Docs, Telegram, Nearpod and Mobile Technologies. It was found that students had positive views of Google Docs as it improved their writing quality (Ahmad, 2020); Telegram which was used for vocabulary learn...
Humanities and Management Sciences - Scientific Journal of King Faisal University
A research problem was identified that warranted the initiation of this study. A mixed pattern fo... more A research problem was identified that warranted the initiation of this study. A mixed pattern for results regarding Facebook usage in EFL writing outside the classroom exists in the literature. As the researchers believed in studentcentered and autonomous learning, they intended to delineate students' perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks of using Facebook in EFL academic writing. The researchers conducted this study with their students at a Saudi college. Ten students participated in this study while they were studying the English Writing course. The researchers collected data through a questionnaire, interviews and participant observations. The findings showed six benefits of Facebook usage in academic writing: (1) greater motivation to write, (2) increased collaboration among students, (3) improvements in writing, (4) having a good medium to practise writing outside the classroom, (5) providing an environment with less pressure on writing and (6) greater ease of use and being able to write anytime, anywhere. Two drawbacks were identified: (1) distractions regarding chat invitations and (2) use of impolite language. The researchers provided suggestions for maximising the benefits and minimising the drawbacks in EFL teaching and learning. They also linked the use of Facebook to some learning theories. أحمد خالد و الشلوي سعد بن أحمد ليالي (. 2020 .) السعودية الكليات إحدى في اإلنجليزية باللغة األكاديمية الكتابة لتعليم الفيسبوك استخدام حول الطالب آراء. العلوم فرع فيصل، امللك لجامعة العلمية املجلة واإلدارية اإلنسانية ، (املجلد إلكتروني نشر (العدد ،) إلكتروني نشر
Ain Shams University Journal of Education JFEES , 2021
The researchers investigated the advantages and disadvantages of the sudden shift to e-learning f... more The researchers investigated the advantages and disadvantages of the sudden shift to e-learning from the perspectives of Saudi EFL students during COVID-19. That shift was the only learning option for a long time to come after the existence of new variants of the virus. Studying students' perspectives during the pandemic was important to display how they took responsibility for their learning, interact with the teachers, and collaborate. The researchers performed this study to describe: (a) EFL students' perspectives on e-learning, (b) advantages of e-learning for EFL, and (c) disadvantages of e-learning for EFL in Saudi Arabia during Coronavirus variants. A self-devised questionnaire and individual interviews were administered virtually during COVID-19 with male EFL students while they were studying an integrated-skills English course as an intermediate-level course in the PYP of a Saudi university. Using the Constant Comparative Method to analyze the qualitative data resulted in eight benefits and four drawbacks of e-learning for the Saudi EFL context. Most students viewed that e-learning and Social Media as supporting platforms of their learning while a few of them did not think favorably of e-learning. Recommendations were offered to enhance the benefits and decrease the drawbacks.
Research paper, 2020
ABSTRACT A research problem was identified that warranted the initiation of this study. A mixed p... more ABSTRACT A research problem was identified that warranted the initiation of this study. A mixed pattern of results about using Facebook in EFL writing outside class exist in literature. As the researchers believed in student-centered learning and in autonomous learning, they intended to delineate students' perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks of using Facebook in EFL academic writing. The researchers conducted this study with their students at a Saudi college. Ten students participated in this study while they were studying the English Writing course. Their level of English proficiency was at the upper intermediate level. The researchers collected data through a questionnaire, an interview, and participant observations. The findings showed six benefits for using Facebook in academic writing: (1) motivation to write, (2) collaboration among students, (3) improvement of writing, (4) being a good medium to practice writing outside class, (5) providing a less-pressure atmosphere for writing, and (6) ease of use and enabling writing anytime anywhere. Two drawbacks were identified: (1) distraction by chat invitations and (2) use of impolite language. The researchers provided suggestions for maximizing the benefits and minimizing its drawbacks in EFL teaching and learning. They also linked the use of Facebook to some learning theories.
Research article , 2020
Coronavirus (COVID-19) was declared a world pandemic by the World Health Organization
(WHO) on J... more Coronavirus (COVID-19) was declared a world pandemic by the World Health Organization
(WHO) on January 30, 2020. As a safety measure to protect people, most governments in the world, including
Saudi Arabia, decided to close universities and workplaces. Prompted by this shut down, the researchers
aimed to review the students’ perceptions of e-learning for ESL/EFL in Saudi universities at this Coronavirus
time. As such, this review reported on four primary studies that were found relevant to its focus during the
period from January 2020 till April 2020 (Abu-Ayfah, 2020; Ahmad, 2020; Alshehri & Cumming, 2020;
Hakami, 2020). As a historical perspective of the review’s focus, it also reported on other four primary studies
dating back to 2018 and 2019 (Alshehri, Rutter & Smith, 2019; Mutambik, 2018; Oyaid & Alshaya, 2019;
Sharma, 2019). The review’s objectives were to report: 1) students’ perceptions of e-learning for ESL/EFL, 2)
benefits of e-learning for ESL/EFL, and 3) drawbacks of e-learning for ESL/EFL in Saudi universities.
Moreover, this review was compared to a conference paper from China (He, 2020) as it presented a strategy to
continue college English learning and teaching at Coronavirus time. Results showed students’ positive views,
many benefits and limited drawbacks of e-learning for ESL/EFL in Saudi universities.
Keywords: e-learning; ESL/EFL; students’ perceptions; benefits and drawbacks; Saudi education.
International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies, 2019
The researchers used an intact class of convenience at the English Language Institute (ELI) in Ju... more The researchers used an intact class of convenience at the English Language Institute (ELI) in Jubail, Saudi Arabia to conduct their study to find out about the students' perspectives about the use of blogs as an additional out-of-class ESL writing activity. These perspectives were important as mixed results about benefits and limitations of the use of blogs in ESL writing were reported in the literature. Twenty Saudi male students participated in the questionnaire and interview. The researchers aimed to gain in-depth information from the participants to try to answer the research question (i.e., what are the ELI Saudi students' perceptions of the use of blogs in ESL writing?). As such, these twenty students who agreed to participate in the study were enough since the aim was to gain rich information to answer the research question not to generalize the findings to any intended larger population. The study found advantages for using blogs in ESL writing. These were: (1) motivation, (2) collaboration among students. (3) helping students express their views freely and (4) being user-friendly. One drawback was reported by the participants, namely, the use of impolite language by some bloggers. These positive results of using blogs were in line with the results of other primary studies reported in the literature such as Kitchakarn (2012), Vurdien (2012) and Wang et al (2011). The one reported limitation was also reported in Nepomuceno (2011). One tip was presented by the researchers to overcome this limitation. Finally, they offered suggestions for further research.
San Diego Regional CATESOL Conference, 2016
This presentation is about Facebook in ESL writing. A lot of advantages of using Facebook in ESL ... more This presentation is about Facebook in ESL writing. A lot of advantages of using Facebook in ESL writing have been documented and reported by primary studies. Suthiwartnarueput & Wasanasomsithi (2012) found that Facebook gave students more opportunities to practice EFL writing and improved both EFL grammar and writing. Shukor & Noordin (2014) reported that Facebook offered a convenient educational environment suitable for collaborative writing and was a more fun medium for writing. Abdul Majid, Stapa & Keong (2012) stated that the participants in their study preferred to use blended instruction (via Facebook) to traditional classroom instruction. They believe that Facebook helped them with the writing process (i.e., finding ideas, re-writing, editing, getting feedback, etc.) and actually improved their writing performance. Some limitations have also been reported by some studies concerning using Facebook in ESL writing. Yunus, Salehi, Sun & Yen (2011) reported in their primary study that some Facebook features such as games, chat and other Apps “distract” students from focusing on their writing. The presenter discusses the significance of the findings reported by these studies on Facebook and ESL writing; then relates these findings to current theory in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Finally, he offers suggestions for maximizing the benefits of using Facebook in ESL writing and minimizing the adverse effects.
CATESOL San Diego chapter, 2014
users) and how to keep a “threaded discussion”, in other words, getting comments and feedback on ... more users) and how to keep a “threaded discussion”, in other words, getting comments and feedback on one’s own posts or entries, then one replies to such comments with more thoughts and ideas and then receives second or third feedback on one’s replies and so on.
Furthermore, the many advantages of using blogs for ESL reading/writing will be shared with the audience. Primary research studies' findings that support the use of blogs for ESL reading/writing will also be shared with the participants of this workshop. Then, the theoretical foundations for using blogs in ESL reading/writing will be shared with the participants. Three example ESL blogs will be shown to the audience. Finally, the participants will evaluate the workshop via a questionnaire.
Annual CATESOL, Santa Clara, 2014
The presenters share a joint initiative between the TESOL and Graduate Education programs of a pr... more The presenters share a joint initiative between the TESOL and Graduate Education programs of a private university in California and a state university in Indonesia. This project demonstrates creative ways to promote professional development and sustain continuous peer mentoring between TESOL graduate students in different regions of the world.
International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies, 2019
The researchers used an intact class of convenience at the English Language Institute (ELI) in Ju... more The researchers used an intact class of convenience at the English Language Institute (ELI) in Jubail, Saudi Arabia to conduct their study to find out about the students’ perspectives about the use of blogs as an additional out-of-class ESL writing activity. These perspectives were important as mixed results about benefits and limitations of the use of blogs in ESL writing were reported in the literature. Twenty Saudi male students participated in the questionnaire and interview. The researchers aimed to gain in-depth information from the participants to try to answer the research question (i.e., what are the ELI Saudi students’ perceptions of the use of blogs in ESL writing?). As such, these twenty students who agreed to participate in the study were enough since the aim was to gain rich information to answer the research question not to generalize the findings to any intended larger population. The study found advantages for using blogs in ESL writing. These were: (1) motivation, (2) collaboration among students. (3) helping students express their views freely and (4) being user-friendly. One drawback was reported by the participants, namely, the use of impolite language by some bloggers. These positive results of using blogs were in line with the results of other primary studies reported in the literature such as Kitchakarn (2012), Vurdien (2012) and Wang et al (2011). The one reported limitation was also reported in Nepomuceno (2011). One tip was presented by the researchers to overcome this limitation. Finally, they offered suggestions for further research.
paper, 2019
The researchers used an intact class of convenience at the English Language Institute (ELI) in Ju... more The researchers used an intact class of convenience at the English Language Institute (ELI) in Jubail, Saudi Arabia to conduct their study to find out about the students' perspectives about the use of blogs as an additional out-of-class ESL writing activity. These perspectives were important as mixed results about benefits and limitations of the use of blogs in ESL writing were reported in the literature. Twenty Saudi male students participated in the questionnaire and interview. The researchers aimed to gain in-depth information from the participants to try to answer the research question (i.e., what are the ELI Saudi students' perceptions of the use of blogs in ESL writing?). As such, these twenty students who agreed to participate in the study were enough since the aim was to gain rich information to answer the research question not to generalize the findings to any intended larger population. The study found advantages for using blogs in ESL writing. These were: (1) motivation, (2) collaboration among students. (3) helping students express their views freely and (4) being user-friendly. One drawback was reported by the participants, namely, the use of impolite language by some bloggers. These positive results of using blogs were in line with the results of other primary studies reported in the literature such as Kitchakarn (2012), Vurdien (2012) and Wang et al (2011). The one reported limitation was also reported in Nepomuceno (2011). One tip was presented by the researchers to overcome this limitation. Finally, they offered suggestions for further research.
Thesis Chapters by Dr Khaled Layali
doctoral dissertation, 2017
This study sought to understand the English Language Institute (ELI) of Jubail Industrial
Colleg... more This study sought to understand the English Language Institute (ELI) of Jubail Industrial
College (JIC) students’ perceptions of the use of blogs as additional out-of-class ESL writing
activities. It also sought to delineate the ELI students’ perceptions of the advantages and
drawbacks of using blogs in ESL writing outside class, especially in the light of the mixed
pattern of results reported in the literature wheresome studies reported using blogs was
beneficial in ESL writing while others reported they had limitations.
This study had three research questions. What are the ELI students’ perceptions of the
use of blogs as additional, out-of-class ESL writing activities? What are the students' perceptions
of the benefits and advantages of blogs in ESL writing? What are the students' perceptions of the
drawbacks and disadvantages of blogs in ESL writing?
The participants in the study were ten Saudi malesenrolled in a course called Unlock 3
Reading and Writing in the ELI of JIC in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. The number of participants was
sufficient since the findings were not generalized to any intended larger population (Perry,
2011).
To satisfy the principle of triangulation and ensure data reliability, the researcher
employed three methods for data collection: a self-devised 18-item questionnaire, individual
interviews, and a researcher’s journal (Glesne, 2016; Perry, 2011).
The results of this study identified six benefits that resulted from using blogs in ESL
writing outside class: (a) collaboration/interaction with classmates outside class, (b) help for shy
students in expressing their views, (c) motivation to write, (4) ease of use, (5) less pressure on
students because of the informal nature of blogs, and (6) improved writing. In addition, two
limitations were also identified: (1) distraction from online ads, games, and chat invitations and
BLOGS IN ESL WRITING viii
(2) the use of impolite language by some bloggers. Thus, the benefits of blogs in ESL writing
outweighed the limitations. These positive results were in line with the results of the primary
studies of Koҫ and Koҫ (2016), Kitchakarn (2012), Grami (2012), Vurdien (2012), Wu and Wu
(2011), Wang et al. (2011), and Majid and Adnan (2011).
The researcher provided tips for maximizing the benefits of blogs in ESL writing and
minimizing their drawbacks. Finally, he provided some limitations of this present study and
offered suggestions for future research.
Drafts by Dr Khaled Layali
The study intended to analyze online narrative writing of Covid-19 in a private university in Bah... more The study intended to analyze online narrative writing of Covid-19 in a private university in Bahrain for lexical diversity and writing proficiency. At the Foundation Year program, EFL Bahraini students at the beginner and intermediate level wrote a narrative on Covid-19 via Blackboard. The researchers sought to answer four research questions: 1-Is there any relation between lexical diversity and writing proficiency of Bahraini EFL learners at the beginner level? 2-Is there any relation between lexical diversity and writing proficiency of Bahraini EFL learners at the intermediate level? 3-Is there any significant difference in lexical diversity attributed to the two different levels? 4-Is there any significant difference in writing proficiency attributed to the two different levels? Results showed there was a strong positive relation between lexical diversity and writing proficiency of Bahraini EFL learners at both the beginner and intermediate levels. However, contrary to expectation, there was no statistically significant difference of the lexical diversity and writing proficiency of Bahraini EFL learners between the beginner and intermediate levels. This result was in line with another study performed in Saudi Arabia (Alshehri, 2022). One possible explanation was provided by the researchers. More research is required to further explore this point.
Uploads
Papers by Dr Khaled Layali
(WHO) on January 30, 2020. As a safety measure to protect people, most governments in the world, including
Saudi Arabia, decided to close universities and workplaces. Prompted by this shut down, the researchers
aimed to review the students’ perceptions of e-learning for ESL/EFL in Saudi universities at this Coronavirus
time. As such, this review reported on four primary studies that were found relevant to its focus during the
period from January 2020 till April 2020 (Abu-Ayfah, 2020; Ahmad, 2020; Alshehri & Cumming, 2020;
Hakami, 2020). As a historical perspective of the review’s focus, it also reported on other four primary studies
dating back to 2018 and 2019 (Alshehri, Rutter & Smith, 2019; Mutambik, 2018; Oyaid & Alshaya, 2019;
Sharma, 2019). The review’s objectives were to report: 1) students’ perceptions of e-learning for ESL/EFL, 2)
benefits of e-learning for ESL/EFL, and 3) drawbacks of e-learning for ESL/EFL in Saudi universities.
Moreover, this review was compared to a conference paper from China (He, 2020) as it presented a strategy to
continue college English learning and teaching at Coronavirus time. Results showed students’ positive views,
many benefits and limited drawbacks of e-learning for ESL/EFL in Saudi universities.
Keywords: e-learning; ESL/EFL; students’ perceptions; benefits and drawbacks; Saudi education.
Furthermore, the many advantages of using blogs for ESL reading/writing will be shared with the audience. Primary research studies' findings that support the use of blogs for ESL reading/writing will also be shared with the participants of this workshop. Then, the theoretical foundations for using blogs in ESL reading/writing will be shared with the participants. Three example ESL blogs will be shown to the audience. Finally, the participants will evaluate the workshop via a questionnaire.
Thesis Chapters by Dr Khaled Layali
College (JIC) students’ perceptions of the use of blogs as additional out-of-class ESL writing
activities. It also sought to delineate the ELI students’ perceptions of the advantages and
drawbacks of using blogs in ESL writing outside class, especially in the light of the mixed
pattern of results reported in the literature wheresome studies reported using blogs was
beneficial in ESL writing while others reported they had limitations.
This study had three research questions. What are the ELI students’ perceptions of the
use of blogs as additional, out-of-class ESL writing activities? What are the students' perceptions
of the benefits and advantages of blogs in ESL writing? What are the students' perceptions of the
drawbacks and disadvantages of blogs in ESL writing?
The participants in the study were ten Saudi malesenrolled in a course called Unlock 3
Reading and Writing in the ELI of JIC in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. The number of participants was
sufficient since the findings were not generalized to any intended larger population (Perry,
2011).
To satisfy the principle of triangulation and ensure data reliability, the researcher
employed three methods for data collection: a self-devised 18-item questionnaire, individual
interviews, and a researcher’s journal (Glesne, 2016; Perry, 2011).
The results of this study identified six benefits that resulted from using blogs in ESL
writing outside class: (a) collaboration/interaction with classmates outside class, (b) help for shy
students in expressing their views, (c) motivation to write, (4) ease of use, (5) less pressure on
students because of the informal nature of blogs, and (6) improved writing. In addition, two
limitations were also identified: (1) distraction from online ads, games, and chat invitations and
BLOGS IN ESL WRITING viii
(2) the use of impolite language by some bloggers. Thus, the benefits of blogs in ESL writing
outweighed the limitations. These positive results were in line with the results of the primary
studies of Koҫ and Koҫ (2016), Kitchakarn (2012), Grami (2012), Vurdien (2012), Wu and Wu
(2011), Wang et al. (2011), and Majid and Adnan (2011).
The researcher provided tips for maximizing the benefits of blogs in ESL writing and
minimizing their drawbacks. Finally, he provided some limitations of this present study and
offered suggestions for future research.
Drafts by Dr Khaled Layali